Media Film Festival Returns Tonight!

Grab the popcorn and the quarters for the parking meters because the Media Film Festival is back.

The homegrown festival dedicated to local and international short films returns for its 10th outing on April 7 and 8 with a lineup of 36 films that include student-produced narratives, world premiere showings and a block of horror films.

“It just gets to be more and more fun every year,” said the festival’s marketing director Emily Scheivert. “It’s wonderful, so much fun to put together.”

To find selections for the fest, a dozen members of a screening jury watched 100 submissions to weed out the best, the worst and those in the middle. It was mathematical, for the most part, to pick this year’s selections.

“While the scoring, the balloting is important there is sometimes a bit of subjectivity in that middle area …. Sometimes you go back to judgment night (when final selections are chosen) and then pick who they like best,” said Scheivert.

Drexel Hill Basketball Court Focus of New Book

From a serial killer in Philadelphia to the shit of Vietnam, Tom Faustman’s first two books in his self-

published Misadventures of Dylan series were on the darker side.

With the recent release of the third book in the series, and the first chronologically, “Dylan’s Chase” moves to a more nostalgic place of time: the basketball court of Drexel Hill Elementary School.

What Faustman deemed a “hotbed” of activity in the 1960’s at Shadeland Avenue and State Road when he was growing up, it encouraged him to write a story about the budding competitive nature of basketball and the stories of the people who played there.

“It was a really magical time in my life and the lives playing at this basketball court and the friendships that developed out of it,” Faustman said, who currently resides in Connecticut. “It was such a fun period of our lives and I wanted to tell the story of the fun part of it, but young men are more sensitive to the difficult lives of the people around them. It’s kind of the real world.”

Interboro alum nominated for two CMT Music Awards

Steve Condon (center), and his wife Danielle Porter-Condon with country group Old Dominion. The Condons directed
and produced Old Dominion's video for their first major single "Break up with Him" which is up for two CMT Music Awards.

A few Delco natives are making their way to the CMT (Country Music Television) Music Awards on June 8 after earning a pair of nominations for a music video they directed and produced.

Interboro High School alumni Steve Condon, Danielle Porter-Condon and Steve Molineux are nominated for breakthrough video of the year and group/duo video of the year for Old Dominion’s first major single “Break up With Him,” a video produced through their Nashville-based production company The 10:10 Creative.

“It’s incredible,” said Steve Condon, regularly known as Director Steve, about his first major nomination for his music video work. “This is the band’s first major video, it’s pretty great to know that this is just (Old Dominion and I’s) first shot and it’s up for two.”

Condon and Old Dominion’s love for the 80’s comedy/sci-fi blockbuster “Back to the Future” was the inspiration for the video. Old Dominion lead singer Matthew Ramsey serenades his love interest as she is stuck dancing with a Biff-like character at a dance reminiscent of the film's iconic enchantment under the sea high school gala (renamed entanglement above the heart dance for the video). Ramsey eventually gets his girl as, err, "drive" off to a life of happiness, and in a DeLorean, no less.

'Symphony at the Movies' not a box office smash

There's nothing like hearing memorable film scores being performed live by a full orchestra.

The sweeping sounds of the strings cradle you up in a blanket of happiness as they usher you away from your seat to memories of your favorite stories and characters. Pounding of drums remind us of epics, like Judah Ben-Hur rowing in the gallies in "Ben-Hur" as the drumming ceases to slow. The low, deep moans of the double basses send chills like we're in an old haunted house.

Great music and great moments.

"Gone With the Wind," "Lawrence of Arabia" and "Psycho" are in the top five in a list of the greatest film scores published by the American Film Institute, yet none of these scores, nor anything from their respective composers, filled the Upper Darby Performing Arts Center at a recent performance.

Media Film Festival brings great films, nostalgia back to borough

Photo Courtesy of Media Arts Council

Beloved film critic Roger Ebert had a great saying about the length of a film: “No good movie is too long, and no bad movie is short enough."

That was the statement I thought about before the start of the ninth Media Film Festival.

The way Ebert’s wonderful quote applies to the films shown at this year’s festival went like this: can a short film be too long, or not long enough?

Comprised of over 40 short films ranging in length from two minutes to 30, could it be possible that even at such a minute length compared to a feature, do some stories overstay their welcome, and others not stay long enough?

It turns out, yes.

That’s not to say that the artists, from Media to India, did not show off their good craftsmanship, but even on a small canvas, some work cannot fill the entirety of their space with enough substance to keep you intrigued.

TV Review: 'Delco Proper' Not Proper, But Funny

Anyone who's anyone from the Southeast area of Pennsylvania known as Delco - short for Delaware County - will tell you we are our own breed. We're horrible drivers, we're abrasive and the bar known as Barns (Barnaby's) is the hot drinking spot for a true Delconian.

Delco is so cool that the Oscar-winning film "Silver Linings Playbook" was shot in part in some of its communities. We didn't get to see the attitude that is definitive of the area, but it definitely put us on the map.

Now we have the Comedy Central web series called "Delco Proper", a series of short scenarios that could seem aberrant to those not familiar with this wonderful pocket of the state, but is not at all shocking to those who call Delco home.

In the first episode, Tommy, Izzy and John attend a high school classmate's funeral, or as Tommy refers to as, a "high school reunion".

"It's a funeral, Tommy," says John.

"OK, a sad high school reunion," Tommy assuredly responds.

In Delco, one seems to stick around longer than they mean to, and when an impromptu high school "reunion" isn't happening at a local watering hole, a funeral will suffice. Anytime you see more than one of your classmates in public, it can almost always be a "sad" high school reunion, funeral not needed.

It's part of our charm.

In Delco, we don't ask ourselves why we haven't left yet, we ask why everyone else is still here.

Meanwhile, Izzy wants to kick funeral-goer Donny's ass and hopefully throw him through a stained-glass window. Why? Who knows, it's Delco. Who says we need a legit reason to fight someone?

What transpires in the six-minute episode is, I guess you could say, Delco proper: arguing at a funeral; trying to get laid at said funeral; cursing during a eulogy. It's not to say that these are inappropriate events, they are, but not so inappropriate to us in Delco. There's nothing so shocking that could happen here that would make us say, "that would never happen here!", it's usually always, "only in Delco".

A shock to the pride of Delconians is that aside from the show's name, you wouldn't even know it was set in Delco. There are no defining landmarks that screams Delco - give us a Wawa or something! The characters and situations are typical of our people, you could easily see that if you've lived here long enough, but there's no way to say it's about us if it weren't for the show name. If you took Delco out of the title this would seem like the workings of any other show about foul-mouthed guys pushing themselves in unnecessarily comical situations, or one that exploits a certain event to benefit their own selfish means (which is typical in Delco).

That said, "Delco Proper" is a pop of laughs for its short runtime. It borrows heavily from the film "Clerks" where dialogue is a profanity-laced look at life yet is comforting in that it sounds authentic and true to life, and the characters mirror that film's Dante and Randall (who, also, cause trouble at a funeral). The situations the characters get involved in combine the craziness of the aforementioned with the workings of a "Seinfeld" episode

I'm not saying I didn't laugh, but there is nothing about Delco in this series, so far, whose physical identity resembles the name.

Rating: B-

Oscar-winning Steadicam Inventor Garrett Brown Speaks about 'Rocky', 'Bound For Glory' in Newtown

Garrett Brown may have revolutionized the way motion pictures are filmed with his invention of the Steadicam - a device created in the 1970s that mounts a stabilized camera on a person to allow for free-reign movement of the operator to get clear, non-shaky shots – but he admits that being an inventor is not what he intended with life, let alone change how movies are made.

“Although (my father) talked up inventing ardently,” Brown said, “I wasn’t enthralled with the idea of professionally inventing.”

With over 50 patents established for his devices, notably for his camera stabilization equipment that have in turn earned him an Academy Award, an Emmy, and numerous other accolades, it certainly proved to be a fruitful career path for him.

Movie Review: Good Performances Propel Uneven 'Foxcatcher'

Steve Carell as John du Pont in "Foxcatcher".                              Sony Pictures Classic

Foxcatcher (2014, directed by Bennett Miller. U.S.A., English, color, 134 minutes) The trouble with making a movie out of a real event is that there are so many facts and stories that can be used for dramatic license and skew reality. Yes, I know movies are a work of fiction, but it doesn't mean you should sacrifice a completely true story for the sake of art.

This is my biggest problem with "Foxcatcher", a true story about John du Pont and his manipulatively obsessive relationships with Olympic gold medalists Mark and Dave Schultz, an obsession that led to the murder of Dave, a two-day standoff at the estate, and the incarceration of du Pont. The media frenzy surrounding these events remain in the annals of Delaware County history.

Delco Resident's Film to Open FirstGlance Film Festival in Philadelphia

Drexel Hill actor and producer Drew Seltzer will be bringing his acclaimed film to the Philadelphia area for the first time next weekend.

“Leaving Circadia”, executive produced by Seltzer, will be the opening night selection at the FirstGlance Film Festival at the Franklin Institute on Oct. 17.

“I’m hoping we’re gonna get a big turnout,” said Seltzer. “It always helps when you’re screening in a town that you’re from to get that kind of support.”

Primarily set in a Brooklyn brownstone apartment building, the light-hearted comedy follows a group of late 20-somethings who seem stuck in a post-college rut dealing with work, relationships and life’s new responsibilities.

(Read my review here)

Marple Composer Brings Film Score to Delco

Marple resident Jason Borbidge will be bringing his first commissioned score to the area at the end of the month with a special screening of the film it was featured in.

Borbidge will host a one-time showing at the AMC Marple 10 on Sept. 29 of “It’s All About Me”, a documentary that explores the self-entitled nature of the “me” generation that features Borbidge’s first-ever work as a film composer. An official selection of the 2013 Ottawa International Film Festival, this wil lbe the first time “It’s All About Me” will be shown in Delaware County.

“It’s very emotional to show that to people I’m closest with,” said Borbidge of the film’s first screening for friends and family. “The one thing I can say is that feeling when you’re sitting in the theater watching it is indescribable. It’s just one of those moments you don’t figure. I would expect that same feeling with my closest friends and my parents”

Delco's 'Silver Linings Playbook' Earns Grammy Nomination

Industry recognition for the locally shot “Silver Linings Playbook” keeps coming after the film received a Grammy nomination on Friday night.

The song “Silver Lining (Crazy ‘Bout You)” scored a best song written for visual media nomination for its songwriter Diane Warren. Jessie J performed the song which was featured on the film’s soundtrack.

“Silver Lining” is nominated against the Oscar-winning James Bond song “Skyfall,” “Atlas” from “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire,” “We Both Know” form the film “Safe Haven,” “Young and Beautiful” from the most recent screen adaptation of “The Great Gatsby” and the main theme “You’ve Got Time” of the Netflix original series “Orange is the New Black.”

The winner will be announced at the pre-Grammy telecast on January 26.

This is Warren’s ninth nomination in this category, winning in 1997 for the ballad “Because You Loved Me.” Her songs have also been nominated for six Academy Awards. “Silver Lining” was not listed by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as one of 75 songs in competition for the best original song Oscar earlier this year.

“Silver Linings Playbook” caused a stir in Delaware County when scenes were shot in Upper Darby, Lansdowne and Ridley Park. It became the homegrown favorite to win Academy Awards in February but won only one, best actress for Jennifer Lawrence, from eight nominations including best picture.